


let me see you stripped down to the bone

by forcynics



Series: vampire diaries ficathon fills [20]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen, Werewolf, references to violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-24 00:36:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6135428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forcynics/pseuds/forcynics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mystic Falls is a vampire town. She’s not welcome, and it doesn’t take long to figure out that Mason wasn’t either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	let me see you stripped down to the bone

  
  
  
  
Mason didn't talk too much about the town where he grew up. They all had to shed a bit of themselves, and Jules never questioned it. She never thought she would be visiting, though, and her hands curl tight around the steering wheel when she drives past the welcome sign.

She’s only here for answers.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The house is huge. The kind of property that realtors would describe as _sprawling_. She tries to picture the kind of people who would live in such a house, can’t really equate them with Mason. But then the door opens, and there’s a guy staring at her, some young guy with dark hair and a familiar complexion, a familiar jaw-line.

 _“Do you even know?”_ she almost blurts out, an instinctive tug in her chest face-to-face with tell-tale signs of tragic relation. She squares her shoulders instead. Tries a smile, and introduces herself.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Mason had told her about the council, spewed criticisms of his brother when he was drunk, shrugged when he was sober and said that there were some who clung too tight to memories of the _“old, supernatural stuff”_ that was at the root of the town. Jules wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but one thing becomes clear quick: this is not a place for the general supernatural anymore.

Mystic Falls is a vampire town. She’s not welcome, and it doesn’t take long to figure out that Mason wasn’t either.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Salvatore bloodsucker strikes her immediately as the type of guy who’s used to intimidating those around him. She kind of wants to laugh at the thought, settles for a smirk instead. Pulls her lips back in an imitation of growl – sometimes she slips, sometimes the line blurs and she feels like a wolf in human skin instead of the other way around.

She can tell he doesn’t take her seriously, bares her teeth at that thought too once he’s slipped out of the bar. He’ll see – tonight. If there’s one thing she likes about smug, asshole vampires it’s getting the chance to prove them wrong about her. Her eyes dart to the darkening sky outside the window and she grins, slowly.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
She’s turned enough times that she can almost relish the pain of the process in anticipation of what it’s like to rip out of her clumsy human body and run on four legs. But what strikes her most is the difference in the smells that assault her senses when she breaks into her wolf form. Even the Mystic Falls air tastes different – cold and _grassy_ , she thinks, and she misses the warm salty tang of Florida.

Every breath reminds her how far she is from home.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
She wakes naked on the ground, sunlight bright above her and bodies scattered around her. There is dirt smeared into her skin and blood under her fingernails – she thinks she can still taste it in her mouth too, and swallows, licks a path along the inside of her cheek and shudders.

She washes the blood and dirt away, dresses, and burns the evidence until only the smoke clinging to her hair remains.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It’s time to leave. She _bit_ that girl vampire, and with every step she takes along the main road she expects to see Salvatore pop up to make good on his threats. She was supposed to get _him_ , and now she’s jittery, hating the sensation of being trapped in her own body. She’s not completely powerless, she’s still strong, still quick, but it’s not the same and it’s only a matter of time before he comes after her.

But. There’s the kid. Tyler Only-turned-once-doesn’t-know-what-the-hell-he’s-doing Lockwood. _Mason’s nephew._ So she stays.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In the end, she does keep Tyler safe. She can’t claim the same for the rest of the pack, who came to stand by her with Brady. She can’t claim the same for Brady either, and that’s the part that twists white-hot inside her.

But. There’s Tyler, safe and alive and sitting in her passenger seat. She came to Mystic Falls for one Lockwood, and she’s leaving with another, but when she closes her eyes as she fumbles the key into the ignition, she tells herself she’s done right for Mason, as much as she could.

She hits the pedal hard and doesn’t look in the rear-view mirror.  
  
  
  



End file.
